BAME solicitors report higher instances of stress than white colleagues

updated on 23 July 2013

Black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) partners are the most likely solicitors to suffer stress in the country, according to new research published by the Law Society.

The findings have resulted from a survey of 2,267 solicitors last year. Almost all solicitors reported "negative stress" in their working lives, while 52% graded their stress as "moderate". As Legal Futures reports, while there was no variation in solicitors’ reported stress levels at different sizes of firm and little difference between women and men in the reporting of stress levels, 23% of BAME solicitors reported high stress levels compared to 17% of white solicitors.

Elsewhere, some 41% of solicitors reported having come in to work when they felt they were too ill to do so, while a third of respondents had taken time off work for reasons of ill health - with more women (39%) forced to do so than men (26%).